Not wicked, just misogyny on four wheels

Wicked Campers slammed in South Australian Parliament

The following is taken from the Second Reading of the Motor Vehicles (Offensive Advertising) Amendment Bill in South Australia. The Hon Zoe Bettison, member for Ramsay, spoke in support of proposed legislation to deregister Wicked Campers if they do not abide Ad Standards rulings:

I rise this morning to support the Motor Vehicles (Offensive Advertising) Amendment Bill brought to this house by the member for Reynell. It is unfortunate that we have to talk about this because it seems quite simple that this is unacceptable. We want to propose reforms to the vehicle registration laws banning the registration of vehicles displaying obscene, sexist and racist messages.

We have modernised our society. We have called out violence against women, and I, personally, have worked diligently to ensure that our state is an inclusive and welcoming community that treats people with respect. That is why I am so disappointed and appalled by the harmful messages on the Wicked campervans that are freely driving around our state. Our community deserves better. Our community is better than this.

Despite South Australia being the first Australian state to grant women the vote and to stand for parliament, and the first to legally prohibit racial discrimination and sexual discrimination, currently there is nothing that prohibits these vans with offensive slogans from being on the roads of our state. Not only are they not acceptable but they should be removed immediately. Some might argue that we simply cannot see the funny side of these slogans. They are right; there is nothing funny about these slogans. Normalising violence against women and treating it as a punchline undermines all our efforts to reduce violence. They cause immediate offence and hurt across our community by perpetuating sexist attitudes that we are working tirelessly to change.

To quote our most recent former prime minister: not all disrespect ends in violence, but all violence starts with disrespect. This was an incredibly strong statement that he made because we have to call it out; whether it be in the workplace, the sporting field or down the street, that disrespecting women must end. We live in a country where one woman is killed every week by a current or former partner. We have come a long way, but there is still much work to be done. These messages undo decades of advocacy and women's empowerment and this is the kind of thing that we must make sure we stand up against in the future.

Wicked Campers promote their rental vans to backpackers and tourists who are likely to be visiting South Australia's most popular tourist destinations. While we as a state are promoting our festivals, our natural beauty, our food and wine, encouraging people to linger longer and enjoy what we love about South Australia, our visitors see these outlandish, highly visible vans at these great destinations. We are giving mixed messages to people. We are a global city. Tourism is one of our key economic drivers.

We invite tourists to come and enjoy what we love about South Australia, but in their face, in the car park, are these vans with offensive slogans. How does that match who we are? How does that match who we want to be? Think about our young boys and girls: we need to continue these messages from a very early age. We need to call out disrespect and we need to call out violence, yet we have these very visible slogans on the back of a van. How do you explain to your child that that is okay to be in public?

These are deliberately offensive slogans: 'Drink till she's pretty,' or, 'I've often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can't get my wife to go swimming.' These are vulgar statements. It is not just women that these are offensive to; they are offensive on many levels: sexism, racism, paedophilia. They go to the heart of the attitudes around domestic violence and violence against women. They also glamorise and trivialise drug use. In some cases, they even promote rape and murder. This is not what we want people to see when they visit South Australia. It is not what South Australians want to see in our state. A standard that we walk past is a standard that we accept.

I urge this house to support the motion and remind the house what we are supporting here: the cancellation of a vehicle's registration if it displays advertising material found to breach the code, preventing the refund of part or whole of the registration fee paid, preventing the transfer of a vehicle's registration when cancelled, preventing the renewal of registration unless the offending advertisement is removed, and purporting to prevent judicial review of the decision to cancel a vehicle's registration. This is what the bill does. But what it really does is send the strongest message that obscenity, racism and sexism is unacceptable in South Australia.

The bill has been adjourned. Read more here. Check our website for regular updates.

This is why we need legislation against Wicked Campers.

Ad Standards has upheld complaints against a Wicked Camper van emblazoned with the slogan “Nothing says romance like choking on a d*ck because you’re choosing his penis over air. Now that’s love.”

According to Mumbrella, complainants argued the vans were “highly inappropriate for children”, “damaging for under age children” and “vulgar”.

One complaint said: “They keep showing a disregard and just change the slogans to something else vulgar or offensive. When will people and children’s rights be protected from marketing material put out by this company. They do it with intention. That is proven.”

The Panel upheld complaints on the basis that the advertisement contained an explicit sexual reference and did not treat the issue of sex, sexuality and nudity with sensitivity to the relevant broad audience and was therefore in breach of Section 2.4 of the code.

This slogan, however, is not merely referencing a sex act- it is trivialising an act of sexual violence against women.

To date, Ad Standards has upheld more than 80 complaints against Wicked Campers, yet Wicked Campers refuses to comply with rulings.

Tasmania, ACT and Queensland have passed laws to deregister Wicked Camper vans if they do not abide by Ad Standards rulings. Collective Shout has called on Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and South Australia to do the same.

MPs in South Australia will gather on the steps of Parliament house on Wednesday, 5th December at 9.30 am to speak about the need to take action against Wicked Campers. We encourage our South Australian supporters to attend.

As our loyal supporters know each year in the lead up to Christmas, we release our annual blacklist of corporate offenders- companies that have objectified women and sexualised girls to sell their products and services throughout the year.

You can send a message to these companies by voting with your wallet and refusing to financially support brands that rely on sexploitation to sell their products.

Notorious rental van firm Wicked Campers would be banned from adorning its vehicles with “obscene, sexist and racist” messages under proposed reforms to vehicle registration laws.

The mooted legislation, to be introduced in State Parliament on Wednesday by Labor MP Katrine Hildyard, would give the Registrar of Motor Vehicles the power to cancel or refuse to renew vehicle registrations on cars, vans and trucks displaying sexist, racist and otherwise offensive slogans.

The Registrar would be permitted to exercise this power if the Advertising Standards Bureau upheld complaints about offensive slogans.

Wicked Camper vans exploit 'obvious legal loophole'

A van painted with a slogan that Ad Standards condemned for its sexually explicit language has been spotted in Cairns in far north Queensland, with one tourist describing it as "vile".

Laws were passed in Queensland and Tasmania in 2017 in response to complaints about offensive slogans on vehicles.

Under the laws, if the Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) upholds the complaints they are referred to the Department of Transport and Main Roads, which can cancel the offending vehicle's registration if the slogans are not removed within 14 days.

Queensland Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said, without a national approach, it was hard to keep vans with slogans that have breached the Ad Standards Code of Ethics off the road.

He said the laws passed in Queensland and Tasmania should be passed nationwide.

"Our Government has targeted sexist, misogynistic and inappropriate slogans on vehicles through registration cancellations," he said.

Wicked Campers are notorious for their sexually explicit slogans and imagery, even advocating rape and murder. Ad Standards is powerless to enforce rulings against them, and as a result, Tasmania, ACT and Queensland have passed laws to deregister Wicked campervans that do not abide Ad Standards Rulings.

We are calling on MPs to enact similar legislation in other states, so we have written to the following ministers:

Luke Donnellan, Minister for Roads and Road Safety, VictoriaMichelle Roberts, Minister for Police and Road Safety, Western AustraliaStephan Knoll, Minister for Transport, South AustraliaMelinda Pavey, Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight, New South Wales

We are writing to draw your attention to the passage of legislation in two states and territories preventing the company Wicked Campers from advertising sexist, misogynistic and racist slogans and imagery on their camper vans. It is our hope that you will do what you can to ensure that Victoria follows suit.

For many years, Wicked Campers has attracted widespread criticism for its normalising of violence against women. The vehicles are notorious for their sexually explicit slogans and imagery, some advocating rape and even murder. The company has also been criticised for its anti-gay and racist slogans. Images of these vehicles can be seen at https://www.collectiveshout.org/wicked_campers.

To date, Ad Standards has upheld almost 80 complaints against the company. However, the panel has no powers of enforcement and there are no penalties for non-compliance. As a result, Wicked Campers has ignored all rulings against it. Given the advertising code is voluntary, there is nothing to stop Wicked Campers from promoting content that vilifies women.

In 2015 the company released a sarcastic media release mocking complainants, stating, “We employed a team of highly-intelligent, socially-conscious super monkeys to closely monitor the subject matter featured on our vehicles and scream loudly when offended.”

Given Wicked Campers’ refusal to comply with Ad Standards rulings and its ongoing disregard for community attitudes and research demonstrating the harms of objectified portrayals of women (J Sex Res. 2016 May-Jun; 53(4-5):560-77. doi: 10.1080/00224499.2016.1142496. Epub 2016 Mar 15.Media and Sexualization: State of Empirical Research, 1995-2015. Ward LM)) state governments must take urgent action to bring the company into line. Queensland, Tasmania and ACT have all taken legislative measures to force compliance.

In 2016 Queensland passed the Transport Operations (Road Use Management) (Offensive Advertising) Amendment Bill enabling the Department of Transport and Main Roads to cancel a vehicle's registration if the owners did not remove offending slogans within 14 days of an Ad Standards ruling.

Under the Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Regulation 2000, in the ACT, the Road Transport Authority can refuse the registration of a vehicle in the ACT if it has previously been cancelled and suspended in another jurisdiction. ACT Minister for Justice, Consumer Affairs and Road Safety, Shane Rattenbury, stated that vehicles de-registered on this basis in other states would will not be eligible for registration in the ACT.

“The Northern Territory’s Motor Vehicles Act allows the Registrar of Motor Vehicles to cancel registration of vehicles which are ‘a source of annoyance to the public’, which likely includes vehicles displaying sexist, discriminatory or otherwise offensive advertising.”

In 2017 Tasmania also took action against sexually explicit and discriminating slogans and imagery featured on Wicked Campers vans in response to complaints about slogans displayed on the rental vehicles.

On behalf of our thousands of supporters, we are asking that you move to implement similar legislation. We note that Victoria has taken a strong stand to address violence against women and commend your state’s commitment to the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children. It is our strong view that moving to outlaw sexist and degrading slogans such as those features on Wicked Camper vans would further demonstrate the commitment of your government to addressing sexism in all its manifestations.

Thank you for your urgent consideration. We look forward to your response.